Victoria and Albert Museum

As the world's leading museum of art and design, the V&A enriches people's lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed world.

Venue Type:

Museum

Opening hours

10.00 to 17.45 daily10.00 to 22.00 Fridays (selected galleries remain open after 18.00 - please see Gallery Closures for further information)Closing commences 10 minutes before time stated

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December

Admission charges

Admission freeThere may be a charge for some special exhibitions and events

Getting there

London Underground (The Tube): The V&A is a five minute walk from South Kensington underground station (on the Piccadilly, Circle and District Line). South Kensington is a five minute tube journey from Victoria, ten minutes from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from King's Cross St Pancras.

The V&A is a ten minute walk from Knightsbridge underground station (on the Piccadilly Line). Knightsbridge is a ten minute tube journey from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from Kings Cross St Pancras.

Bus: Buses C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance. The Open Tour stop outside the Museum as part of their Double Decker Bus site-seeing tour of London.

Additional info

See website for details

The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers.

The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day.

Although the V&A's collections are international in their scope, they contain many particularly important British works - especially British silver, ceramics, textiles and furniture.

Part of the RIBA Trust's British Architecture Library, a Designated Collection of national importance, is on display at this museum.

The collection provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of architecture. It is fundamental to the study of architecture in Britain and is nationally and internationally significant.

Key artists and exhibits

The British Galleries 1500-1900 tell the story of British design from the Tudor age to the Victorian era. Fifteen completely refurbished galleries are filled with exhibits reflecting all of the top British designers of the times. The galleries are enhanced by computer interactives, objects to handle, video screens and audio programmes. Highlights include the gigantic Great Bed of Ware (mentioned in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and the wedding suit worn by James II. Inspirational, beautiful and unmatched in scope, the British Galleries offer an entirely new visitor experience in a stunning and innovative setting.

Designated Collection

Exhibition details are listed below, you may need to scroll down to see them all.

Exhibition (temporary)

Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear

16 April 2016 — 12 March 2017 *on now

This exhibition will address the practicalities of underwear and its role in the fashionable wardrobe whilst highlighting its sensual, sexual appeal.

The exhibition will explore dress reformers and designers who argued for the beauty of the natural body, as well as entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators who have played a critical role in the development of increasingly more effective and comfortable underwear.

Website

You Say You Want a Revolution: Records & Rebels 1966-70

10 September 2016 — 26 February 2017 *on now

This major exhibition will examine the late 1960s as a moment when youth culture drove an optimistic idealism, and motivated people to come together to question the established power structures across every area of society. Through objects relating to music, fashion, film, design and politics, an immersive soundtrack and theatrical three dimensional design, it will investigate the cultural upheavals and the changes within the law that took place during those five revolutionary years.

The spine of the exhibition will be a musical odyssey through some of the greatest music and performances of the 20th century, from Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change is Gonna Come’, to The Who’s ‘My Generation’, to Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock; and will focus on particular moments or environments that defined the cultural and social vanguard of the period, including clubs and counterculture, the Paris protests of May 1968, World Fairs, the Woodstock Festival of 1969 and communes on the West Coast of America. The exhibition considers how the finished and unfinished revolutions of the 1960s changed the way we live today and affect the way we think about the future.

Website

Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery

1 October 2016 — 5 February 2017 *on now

From the 12th to the 15th centuries, England was internationally famous mainly for one type of artistic product – elaborate luxury embroideries.

These objects, were sought after by Kings, Popes and Cardinals, and often bear elaborate imagery. This exhibition will highlight the exquisite craftsmanship of the pieces and explore the world in which they were created.

Alongside the magnificent embroideries, many from the V&A’s own collection, will be related material in other media such as paintings, manuscripts, metalwork and sculpture.

Website

Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains

13 May — 1 October 2017

The V&A is staging an unprecedented, innovative and multi-sensory journey through Pink Floyd's extraordinary worlds, chronicling the music, design and staging of the band, from their debut in the 60s through to the present day.

The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains is the first international retrospective of one of the world's most pioneering and influential bands who are recognised as one of the top selling artists of all time.

Aubrey Powell curates alongside Paula Stainton for Pink Floyd and, for the V&A, a team lead by Senior Curator Victoria Broackes.

the curators have worked in close consultation with Roger Water, David Gilmour and Nick Mason on the content of the exhibition, which will feature over 350 artefacts spanning the band's five decades, alongside material from the V&A's outstanding collection of art, design, architecture and performance.

Make Your Own Thaumatrope

Wallpaper Design

Getting there

London Underground (The Tube): The V&A is a five minute walk from South Kensington underground station (on the Piccadilly, Circle and District Line). South Kensington is a five minute tube journey from Victoria, ten minutes from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from King's Cross St Pancras.

The V&A is a ten minute walk from Knightsbridge underground station (on the Piccadilly Line). Knightsbridge is a ten minute tube journey from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from Kings Cross St Pancras.

Bus: Buses C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance. The Open Tour stop outside the Museum as part of their Double Decker Bus site-seeing tour of London.

Website

E-mail

Telephone

020 7942 2000

All information is drawn from or provided by the venues themselves and every effort is made to ensure it is correct. Please remember to double check opening hours with the venue concerned before making a special visit.

A custom-designed laser light show, unseen concert footage and construction pieces from the tours for The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and The Division Bell will feature in a major exhibition opening in 2017.